Udo Kier
| Udo Kier | |
|---|---|
 At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival |
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| Born | Udo Kierspe 14 October 1944 Cologne, Germany |
Udo Kier (born Udo Kierspe; 14 October 1944) is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.
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[edit] Early life
Kier was born in Cologne. The hospital where he was born was bombed moments after his birth.[1] His father was absent during most of his childhood. Kier moved to Britain at the age of eighteen, in 1962.
[edit] Career
Udo Kier began his acting career as a protégé of film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He has starred in many vampire movies, such as Blood for Dracula, produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey (1974), Blade (1998), Modern Vampires (1998) and Shadow of the Vampire (2000), both as vampire and human. He has also been in all of Lars von Trier's movies since 1987's Epidemic (with the exceptions of The Idiots, The Boss of it All and Antichrist), and is the godfather of von Trier's daughter Agnes.
Well known mainstream film appearances were in the Pamela Anderson movie, Barb Wire, and as an extremely cynical NASA flight surgeon in Armageddon, who finds himself subjected to the rambunctious behavior of the flight crew he is supposed to psychoanalyze, and as Ralphie in the film Johnny Mnemonic. He has also frequently worked with director Christoph Schlingensief.
Kier also made an appearance in Madonna's 1992 coffee table book, Sex, as well as the video for her disco hit "Deeper and Deeper" from the album Erotica.[2] Kier appeared in Korn's music video "Make Me Bad" alongside Brigitte Nielsen, as a military "scientist" conducting bizarre experiments on his "patients" (the band members). He is described in the "making of" of this video as having "fucked-up eyes but he's funny as shit", by Korn's frontman Jonathan Davis. He also appears in the music video of "Die Schöne und das Biest" by defunct German band Rauhfaser.
He also starred as the psychic "Yuri" in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, where he dubbed the character's voice for the German language version, and its expansion, Yuri's Revenge.
He also played the villainous Lorenzini in the 1996 film The Adventures of Pinocchio, and then later reprised his role in The 1999 Sequel The New Adventures of Pinocchio and voices Professor Pericles in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
When not filming, Kier divides his time between homes in Germany, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs, California.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Games
[edit] References
- ^ cf. role in "Epidemic" and DVD commentary from Lars von Trier
- ^ Guilbert, Georges-Claude (2002). Madonna as Postmodern Myth. Jefferson: McFarland & Co. p. 69. ISBN 0786414081.
